W&M Libraries Events
Play Ball! Japanese Baseball Culture after World War II
Location
Swem Library, Special Collections Research Center400 Landrum Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
Access & Features
- Free food
- Open to the public
Join us on Tuesday, April 1 for panel discussion on baseball culture in Japan during the 20th century in Swem Library’s Special Collections Research Center at William & Mary!
Bobby Rose, former MLB player who played in Japan from 1993 – 2000 for the Yokohama BayStars, will discuss what Japanese baseball looked like through his experience in the Nippon Professional Baseball league. Manga historian and translator Ryan Holmberg and comics letterer Brian Baynes will present on Inoue Kazuo’s Bat Kid comic. Published between 1947 and 1949, Bat Kid is celebrated as the first major baseball manga in Japan, which led to an explosion of baseball manga in the 1950s and sports manga in the 1960s.
Selected materials related to Japanese baseball from Special Collections will be available for viewing during the event, and light refreshments will be available. Holmberg’s recently published translation of Bat Kid will be available for purchase and signing during the event. Free and open to all!
Co-sponsored by the US-Japan Baseball Diplomacy Project and William & Mary Libraries with additional support from the Department of History, International Relations Program, the Reves Center for International Studies, and the Japan Retired Foreign Players Association. The US-Japan Baseball Diplomacy Project was launched through the support of the US Embassy: Tokyo.
Sponsored by: W&M Libraries and 150 Years of US-Japan Baseball Diplomacy